My April Fool’s story – “Big shakeup at City Hall” was a bit closer to the truth than I realized.
In a letter to the Board of Aldermen this morning, the mayor announced the imminent departure of Bob Rooney the city’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). Mr. Rooney has been COO since 2010 and has been involved in one way or another in virtually every major initiative in the city in recent years.
His departure is a major loss for the city. His deep knowledge and experience on a wide range of subjects, his managerial skill and his common sense are a valuable combination of skills that will be hard to replace.
I’ve got to a know Mr. Rooney a bit while working on a few different projects and I’m going to miss his quiet, dry sense of humor too – which can be a great antidote when tensions rise.
There’s no word in the letter about where he’s off to next but I wish him well. I think we all owe him a debt for his service to the City of Newton in a very demanding job.
I worked extensively with Bob Rooney when he was Director of Public Works and I was a member of the City’s Compost Oversight Committee. He was friendly and open, a thorough professional and a man who appreciated the contributions of volunteers to so much of what is good in Newton. I was pleased when the Mayor brought him back to Newton and a lot of us will really miss him now that he is again heading away.
I haven’t always agreed with everything Alderman Ted Hess-Mahan has said or done, but when he ran for Mayor in 2013, he made a good point about the turnover in Newton city government. I think Bob Rooney’s departure reinforces THM’s concerns last year.
As talented and capable as Maureen Lemieux is, I think he is putting too much on her plate. In addition to serving as Newton’s CFO, she is also serving as the Interim HR Director and now Chief of Staff.
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/55736
First, thank you Bob for your service and the incredible contributions you’ve made. On top of that, you’re a true gentleman. We will miss you.
Second, Josh, I thought you anti-tax/small government guys were all about consolidating government jobs?
Consolidation is one important strategy. I wouldn’t approve of the exploitation of valuable women who may feel a sense of obligation to her job.
I’ve had the privilege of working with Bob on a number of issues, and I will miss his enthusiasm, big-picture thinking and can-do spirit tremendously.
I was also impressed that he biked to work most days from Needham (there’s a reason he’s svelte)!
I wish him the best in all his future endeavors & hope to work with him again.
Greg – On your stab at Josh, we have a serious problem with turnover across the city, so I might refrain from joking about it. Consolidating jobs is something which, if it were to happen, is planned for. The significant turnover and loss of experienced people as we are seeing leaves departments unable to keep up and ultimately costs everyone in terms of inefficiencies.
I am very sorry to see Bob go. He’s the epitome of why I thought Setti Warren was the best candidate for mayor in 2009: because he could attract candidates like Bob to the executive office.
So why wasn’t Setti Warren able to keep him?
If Setti Warren had left his job after one term, his administration would likely have left too. Why is someone leaving after four years considered an indication of high turnover or failure? I don’t know why he’s leaving but I consider the employment of Bob Rooney for four years a success.
I’m really sorry to see Bob go. Back when he was head of Public Works I worked on a project with him and was impressed with his knowledge, energy and great common sense. He’ll be hard to replace.
According to the Tab Rooney had worked for 7 years ( 2000-2007) for Mayor Cohen. Interesting that he lasted longer with Cohen who many felt was not a good mayor and only 4 with Warren. Warren should have tried to keep him if it was that valuable an employee.
City of Newton has been lucky to have such a great professional such as Bob Rooney in charge of the workings of our city. I wish him great things going forward – and am genuinely concerned who will run our city going forward. (Sheesh, maybe he is going to the City of Boston as many of the Warren Administration people have gone.) We have a hole in our city’s management without Bob, and I am sorry we are losing such a competent executive!
I never had a chance to work with Bob, but always heard wonderful things about him…he will be missed.
BUT and it’s a big but (yes, I said big butt), remember back during the election and newtv/Tab interviewed the mayor about all of the vacancies at city hall and he said that he was going to build the greatest munioipal team in the history of municipalities (not my words, his words). Then Maureen got into the interview and said sometimes you need a position to be vacant a year before you know what direction you want to go in? Really? Where’s that super team???
He’s revamping people we already have. Technically I’m not complaining, since he seems to be consolidating positions, but he gave us a line, during election time and some people fell for it.
Peter, thank you for sticking up for me.
Greg, I missed waking up to your snarky, sarcastic sophistry. I never said I was an anti-tax guy. I opposed Mayor Warren’s $11.4 Million/year tax increase because I oppose Newton spending $8 Million to educate 583 students in its school system who are not from Newton.
As for your remarks about consolidating jobs, having Maureen Lemieux do the work of three people has saved Newton $300,000/year. Having the City of Boston and other communities pay Newton for educating 583 of their kids in our school system would bring in $8 Million/year in revenue (or else we phase out the program). Fiscal Stewardship analysts like myself emphasize the latter as it adds more value.
The good news is that you are right, I support smaller government versus big government. We have big government at the federal, state & local level. Big government in Newton has resulted in Newton racking up $1.16 Billion in debt and other retirement benefit liabilities. I’m still bewildered at how Newton is living beyond its means and yet it is underfunding maintenance and infrastructure. I would think that if Newton is living beyond its means, it would at least be able to properly fund maintenance and infrastructure.
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/26967
Josh, good point on funding maintenance and infrastructure. Like our schools, City Hall is also in a sad state of neglect with a leaky roof and resultant water damage, peeling paint etc. What are we going to do? Just let it continue to rot away until it also needs to be replaced? It’s pathetic.
Peter, don;t worry. In four years, Setti Warren, Maureen Lemieux and the rest of the crew will put on another dog-and-pony show how they need another override to deal with rotting buildings and streets and sidewalks. They’ll tell us that Mayor Warren has saved $1 Billion since taking office and when I ask them why annual spending has increased from $287.5 Million in 2010 to $379 Million in 2018, they’ll say that they need to check their records. When I offer to show them their financial reports and projections from the city’s website, they’ll still waffle, double-back and equivocate.
Superintendent Fleischmans video tour of Angier, Cabot and Zervas conducted by their 3 respective Principals is a real self indictment. We ignore leaking roofs until the school rots from under us, saving all kinds of maintenance money. We then we spend $110,000,000 tearing them down to build 3 new ones which we hope, given current day construction practices, and our well documented maintenance records, will last maybe 1/2 as long. It’s time we wake up, and put in place leadership that has an agenda that recognizes reality.
Bob Rooney usda class act, and we will surely miss him Hoping he’s landed some wonderful job somewhere that he simply couldn’t refuse
I’ve been told, but can’t confirm it, that his replacement is Dr. Dori Zelaznik.
According to the TAB, it appears that Bob Rooney’s job will be split amongst Maureen Lemieux and Dr. Dori Zaleznik. Maureen Lemieux will be Setti’s Chief of Staff as well as serving as Newton’s CFO and Dori will serve as Newton’s Chief Administrative Officer, a role last held by Sandy Pooler.
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/newton/2014/04/02/coo-bob-rooney-resigns-roles-shift-in-executive-office/#axzz2xsuNu3yk
Oops. One day late.